Funcom CEO Discusses The Secret World and Adapting Business Models

Funcoms new CEO discusses the future of The Secret World and tools for evolving the business model if needed.

The latest fad to hit gaming in recent years is the increased fondness of the free-to-play and hybrid gaming models. The Secret World may be one of the last of the pure subscription game models to launch, but Funcom CEO Ole Schreiner explained in a recent interview with GamesIndustry International that the team already has the necessary tools in place if the conspiracy MMOG needs to evolve to meet the new market.

We definitely have the tools to turn The Secret World into a free-to-play game - or even hybrid - should we decide to do that somewhere down the line. We did that with Age of Conan with significant success. We all know that trends and expectations in the gaming business, and perhaps particularly the MMO genre, is evolving quickly, and we're regularly re-evaluating our business model against the changing currents of the marketplace and our own player base as well.

Despite having the tools in place, Schreiner believes that there is still profitability in all three models  subscription, free-to-play and hybrid. Schreiner also touches on the content promises for The Secret World, the statements about Metacritic, the recent layoffs and more.